Deuteronomy 14:3

Thou shall not eat any abominable thing. That is so either in its own nature, or because forbidden by the Lord; what are such are declared in the following verses.

Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing - i:e., anything forbidden as unclean, (see the notes at Leviticus 11:1-47.) BEASTS.

i.e. Unclean and forbidden by me, which therefore should be abominable to you.

Deuteronomy 14:3 Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing.Ver. 3. Thou shalt not eat any abominable.] &c. This law taught them to abstain from communion with wicked men, in whom are found the malignities and evil properties of all other creatures. They feed hard on sin, the devil’ s excrement; as the Tartars eat the carrion, carcasses of horses, camels, asses, cats, dogs, yea, when they stink and are full of maggots, and hold them as dainty as we do venison.

(3) Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing.—That is, anything which Jehovah has pronounced abominable. The distinctions between His creatures were alike established and removed by the Creator. Yet, no doubt, they had also a sanitary purpose in relation to the chosen people.

On Clean And Unclean Animals (Deuteronomy 14:3-20) First, some remarks are necessary on the form of the deuteronomic list. While most of the names have been reasonably identified with animals still found in Palestine—the credit of this is largely due to Canon Tristram—yet full success in such identification is not, and may never be, possible. Especially precarious is the equation of the names with single species. The names are generic, not specific. They are popular. They give proofs of a close observation of the structure and habits of the animals. But the statement that the hare and the rock-badger chew the cud is not correct; though Arab hunters still assert this of the rock-badger (see on Deuteronomy 14:7), and indeed ‘both in hare and hyrax the peculiar munching movements, the backward and forward movements of the lower jaw, are so strongly suggestive of cud-chewing, that one rather admires the suggestion that they do chew the cud.’ Like that in Leviticus 11:2-23 the list in Deut. is not exhaustive. It details the clean mammals, both domestic and wild, but not the clean birds. It names the unclean birds, but not the unclean mammals except the camel, hare, and rock-badger, nor the reptiles nor the insects. That some of these, the weasel, mouse, and lizards, are added in Leviticus 11:29 ff. starts the question whether at the time our list was drawn up it was felt to be enough to count upon the people’s natural repugnance to such vermin, without naming them; and whether the Levitical additions were due to a fresh temptation to use these animals, which Israel had meantime encountered by contact with foreign customs and cults. But this opens up our main subject. What was the principle of the distinction between clean and unclean animals? Some of the data are obscure and conflicting; and different explanations are possible, none of which is wholly satisfactory. As we shall see, the complex result, which the Law presents, is probably due to many causes, both physical and spiritual. The following facts are certain. All Semitic peoples have distinguished between animals lawful and unlawful for food. But their customs, though similar, have varied very much in detail, and flesh which was enjoyed by one tribe was often forbidden to another. Nomad from fellaḥ ?, coast-dweller from desert-dweller, townsman from rustic, they have differed, and still differ in opinion and in practice as to the cleanness or uncleanness of certain animals. From the earliest times and long before there was written Law on the subject, the same distinction prevailed in Israel. The O.T. traditions vary as to the origin of flesh-eating. J and P agree that in his first estate man did not eat flesh.

Compare Lev. 11. The variations here, whether omissions or additions, are probably to be explained by the time and circumstances of the speaker.

THE ANIMALS THAT WERE TO BE EATEN AND THOSE THAT WERE , Deuteronomy 14:3-21. 3. Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing — That is, any thing forbidden as unclean. Comp. Leviticus 11.